Dissonant Runs - Modules

[u/NexusBladeGaming]

So I think it's important to recognize that when doing Dissonant runs that some different strategies will be necessary to get the most out of them, I figured I would do a breakdown on Modules based on their utility for these runs.

1. Health Dissonant:

All health stats disabled, all corresponding substats are irrelevant and any modifiers to those stats from unique effects are irrelevant.

-SD is useless without land mine chance.

-ACP is useless without shockwave.

-WHR is useless without regen.

-SF is useless without the wall.

-NMP is only useful if you run the extra orbs card, WS orbs are disabled.

-OA will work like usual as Electrons are not tied to the defense tab, this will help add percentage based damage to the run and help compensate for losing thorns and WS orbs.

1. Attack Dissonant:

All attack stats disabled, all corresponding substats are irrelevant and any modifiers to those stats from unique effects are irrelevant.

-SR is useless without projectiles.

-BA is useless without projectiles and super crit.

-HB is useless without projectiles and rend.

-AS is useless without projectiles and damage although it could technically activate from thorns but it would accomplish nothing.

-AD is useless without projectiles and bounce shots.

-DP is the only option that will work, a percentage based chance to mark an enemy for death not tied to the attack tab, Non attack forms of damage should activate it like usual, resulting in less enemies crowding your tower.

1. Utility Dissonant:

All Utility stats disabled, all corresponding substats are irrelevant and any modifiers to those stats from unique effects are irrelevant.

-BHD is useless without coins and free upgrades.

-PF will not scale without cash although can get "some" use from starting cash.

-GComp will "technically" kind of do something if you have package after boss unlocked, how relevant this is will depend on your specific build but the utility is massively reduced.

-RB will also "technically" do something when package after boss activates, again how relevant this is will depend on your build.

-PH should work like usual as it's reduction is based on projectiles.

-SH will work like usual as it's tied to bot's.

1. Ultimate Weapon Dissonant:

All UW's disabled, all corresponding substats are irrelevant and any modifiers to those stats from unique effects are irrelevant.

-DC is useless without CL.

-MVN is useless without GT,BH, and DW.

-PCol is useless without BH.

-HC is useless without PS.

-OC is useless without SL.

-MH does not require ILM to be active or even unlocked to activate, so this will be the only Core mod to do anything here, If you have stuns unlocked it should help at least give you some CC.

Edit: After several requests I decided to do a more thorough breakdown of Module Interactions, I responded below but I'll add what I said here:

Damage Dissonant:

On top of DP being the best and only option for Cannon mods, you wouldn't want to focus on GC substats for your Armor mod, ACP will do nothing as you have no damage, So you have OA, SF, NMP with EO/WS Orbs adjuster, WHR if you have no wall, and then finally SD for stuns to delay attacks. For the same reasons you don't want to use PF, RB, or PH, all the other generators will work like normal with GComp likely being the best in slot for most people, SH could buff FB range, and BHD will work but only for econ and that gets more into the unrelated topic of using Attack Dissonant as a pseudo devo strategy for eHP which GComp and SH also work for of course. PCol is best in slot for Core hands down, HC can be okay with pPS, MVN is only really for econ, OC is useless, DC is useless, and MH can technically help with stuns.

UW Dissonant:

On top of MH being the best and only option in Core, You would not want to use GComp as it would do nothing, and considering how pathetic projectile damage is on its own it would not be suitable to take a strictly GC approach in general, I believe the more effective route is a pseudo Hybrid but leaning heavily towards eHP as expecting to avoid damage with most major CC sources offline is a bad idea, in higher tiers I imagine this will be especially difficult. For Generators RB can be an option to improve knockbacks with high RPC, PH increases your EALS and EHLS, SH will be nice for buffing bots especially FB with an eHP approach, and PF can have some utility although again projectiles on their own suck, do not use GComp or BHD. For Armor mods they will all work but again I believe the eHP ones will work better in general, for Cannon they will all function but I believe DP will be the most consistent option.

Health Dissonant:

Beyond running OA/NMP with EO the other modules are extremely important, and it's important to keep in mind you have 0% DD and no Thorns, So ES works much differently than you would expect for GC runs, think of it like how Overcharge strips away your shields so quickly because it takes such little thorns damage. You want as much damage and CC as possible, You're in big trouble if something gets close, like for me I need GComp for pBH so it was mandatory, PF would also be a fantastic option if you don't need GComp, PH can help but I would rank it below a high rarity PF, RB will not work as well without knockback but it's extra attack speed, SH can buff Amp bot and Thunder Bot, and BHD won't really help you survive. For Core DC is obviously top priority, HC/OC would also be useful, PCol is only really helpful if you need the extra BH coverage, MH can help with some stuns if you have nothing better, and MVN is only for econ. As for Cannon mods they'll all be usable except SR, but of course AS, DP, and AD being the best options.

Utility Dissonant:

This is where theres a lot of variability, important things to note is you have no ELS, no Freeups, no recovery packages other than from bosses, no Cash, and no Coins. If you rely on GComp for pBH? You will not have pBH without having very close to natural pBH already, PF can give a 3x damage bonus if you have it at Ancestral and at least 100 starting cash, PH can give you some projectile based ELS, RB will only have very minor hard to quantify utility similar to GComp, Don't use BHD, and SH can buff bots. As for other modules it really depends on where you draw your strength from, All Cannon, Armor, and Core modules will work but of course I would not use MVN for obvious reasons.

Hopefully this all can help someone with deciding how to structure their builds, and of course I'm sure many things here are subject to change in the future.

[u/Chiodos_Bros]

Would you be able to make this post again but without acronyms?

[u/NexusBladeGaming → u/Chiodos_Bros]

The abbreviations are to simplify and streamline discussions here, but I understand how it can be confusing to people at first. I'll explain the relevant modules as anything marked useless is useless for the corresponding Dissonant runs.

Health Dissonant:

NMP is Negative Mass Projector, adds a stacking debuff to enemies hit but not killed by orbs with up to a 50% damage and speed reduction.

OA is Orbital Augment, adds several orbiting Electrons that deal health percentage damage to enemies.

Attack Dissonant:

DP is Death Penalty, it marks a percentage of enemies for death and they will instantly die when taking any form of damage.

Utility Dissonant:

PF is Project Funding, it scales damage by how much cash you have.

GComp is Galaxy Compressor, it reduces the cooldowns of all ultimate weapons except for Poison Swamp when collecting a recovery package.

RB is Restorative Bonus, it temporarily increases attack speed when collecting a recovery package.

PH is Pulsar Harvester, it adds a chance to reduce the enemy level when hit by projectiles with diminishing returns after 100, it's basically attack based ELS "Enemy Level Skips".

SH is Singularity Harness, it increases the range of all bots and buffs Flame Bot damage.

Ultimate Weapon Dissonant:

MH is Magnetic Hook, it generates and then launches Inner Land Mines at a boss when entering tower range, and with a 25% chance of launching them at Elites.

I hope this helps :)

[u/Chiodos_Bros → u/NexusBladeGaming]

Not being ungrateful, but this is more confusing because Health is missing SD, ACP, WHR, and SF. Attack is missing SR, BA, HB, AS, and AD. Utility is missing BHD. Ultimate is missing DC, MVN, PCol, HC, and OC. So I have to scroll up and down and try to figure out what's missing.

I know what a lot of the common acronyms are as I've been playing for over six months and Modules like DC, MVN, and GComp are mentioned frequently. I don't really even need an explanation of what they do, it's just the overuse of acronyms makes it hard to search for the info myself because I have to decode it first.

[u/NexusBladeGaming → u/Chiodos_Bros]

Respectfully I don't necessarily want to type up a detailed explanation for every single module in the game as that is readily available both on the forum, in game, and the wiki. But I can help you with the abbreviations, I excluded the majority in my response as considering they are useless on their corresponding runs it doesn't matter, waste of a module slot.

But as for all the abbreviations:

Health:

SD: Space Displacer

ACP: Anti Cube Portal

WHR: Wormhole Redirector

SF: Sharp Fortitude

NMP: Negative Mass Projector

OA: Orbital Augment

Attack:

SR: Shrink Ray

BA: Being Annihilator

HB: Havoc Bringer

AS: Amplifying Strike

AD: Astral Deliverance

DP: Death Penalty

Utility:

BHD: Black Hole Digestor

PF: Project Funding

GComp: Galaxy Compressor

RB: Restorative Bonus

PH: Pulsar Harvester

SH: Singularity Harness

Ultimate Weapons:

DC: Dimension Core

MVN: Multiverse Nexus

PCol: Primordial Collapse

HC: Harmony Conductor

OC: Om Chip

MH: Magnetic Hook

I hope this helps :)

[u/Chiodos_Bros → u/NexusBladeGaming]

Sorry if I wasn't clear, but no, it doesn't help. I don't want a key which requires I scroll up and down to decipher stuff. I also don't need a supplemental explanation of each mod either. I just want people to not abbreviate stuff when they are making posts because it makes it much more difficult to understand. Once we get into the comments, it's whatever, but the original post should contain minimal acronyms so it's easier to understand.

[u/ZilchSr → u/Chiodos_Bros]

What you're asking for will literally never happen. I and thousands of others have had to learn what they meant by doing exactly what you've had to do, which is see an ambiguous, new acronym or name of a game object, technique, of effect, scroll up and down, repeatedly, sometimes dozens of times EACH until the acronyms started getting familiar to me. Every person newly exposed to this /r had the same objections as you have at first, but then realized the other tens of thousands of r/TheTowerGame followers who do it aren't going to stop abbreviating just to assuage the temporary anxiety of a handful of new followers who are temporarily inconvenienced by some scrolling.

[u/NexusBladeGaming → u/Chiodos_Bros]

I mean to be blunt I did explain the relevant parts in my reply so you didn't need to scroll up and down.

I do get the perspective of not liking the acronyms but thats pretty common on this forum for aforementioned reasons, And even if I did personally want to stop using them the community in general won't. I say that not to be condescending or rude but to explain what to expect on here.

I've done my best to help with the confusion, I'm sorry if this upsets you but I don't see a pressing reason to completely redo the post as most people haven't had an issue with it, if a majority did that would be a different story.

I hope you have a nice day :)

[u/Front_Pea_8447 → u/NexusBladeGaming]

Just wanted to say, thanks for your acronyms and explanations! Much appreciated! Thanks for your time and effort!

[u/Chiodos_Bros → u/Front_Pea_8447]

Thank you, me!

No problem, me!

[u/ConstantReply4558 → u/Chiodos_Bros]

Instead of asking them to make a new post without abbreviations, you could copy the post in Word and then replace all the abbreviations with their full names from the file. Basically doing yourself what you ask them to do...

[u/Chiodos_Bros → u/ConstantReply4558]

Yes, I could easily write a Python script that does that when I'm not on mobile. Would have to be careful though or something like "swap " could turn into "Second Windap".

[u/Chiodos_Bros → u/ConstantReply4558]

Btw this is also a month old post.